Unmask culprit behind slurs – Pairin

PENAMPANG: Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan has urged the relevant authorities, especially the police, to investigate and identify the author of the blog article “Tarian Sumazau Untuk Golongan Rendah Akhlak” which was published on the Suara Pakatan Rakyat blog on Sept 11.

Once the author has been identified, deterrent action must be taken against the individual for trying to disrupt the peace and harmony of Malaysians and create hatred between Sabahans and Peninsular Malaysia, he said.

“This case is punishable by law and I know because I have prosecuted similar offences when I was a Deputy Public Prosecutor, so I urge the authorities not to leave any stone unturned in their investigation,” Pairin, who is also Huguan Siou (Paramount Leader) of KadazanDusun, said during a press conference at the KDCA building here yesterday.

He was commenting on the article which suggested ‘sumazau’ as a dance was only fit for those with low morality, and not fit to be performed for enjoyment during festivities as the dance was only for religious rituals and that those participating in Sumazau were involved in some sort of worship and looked stupid.

According to Pairin, as long as the case was not resolved, it would remain in the hearts of the KadazanDusuns.

“Failure to bring the person(s) responsible to justice might give people the impression that the authorities are not taking the matter seriously and that the Government is behind it,” he opined.

“If no action is taken, then all the protests, objections and police reports will be meaningless,” he said, adding that the contents of the article were against the spirit of 1Malaysia.

“What also cannot be accepted is the total disrespect for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor for dancing the ‘Sumazau’ during the celebration,” he said.

Pairin regretted that Pakatan Rakyat had allowed such an insulting article to be published in its Suara Pakatan Rakyat blog in the first place.

“I know Pakatan Rakyat had denied any involvement with the article, but they must be responsible as the blog belonged to the coalition… it has been set up for quite sometime now, it was not just done yesterday.

“What kind of morality has this blogger got? How can you go down so low as to insult other communities… it is as if the person is not a human, let alone a person who loves Malaysia,” he said.

“Sabahans are peace loving people but if they are cornered, they will rise up and respond,” he said, suggesting that action should be taken against Pakatan Rakyat for allowing the article to be published.

Meanwhile, Persatuan Kebudayaan Tatana Kuala Penyu president Datuk Wences Angang, who was also present at the press conference, said he wanted the police to find and identify the person or persons responsible for writing the article.

“Once the individual’s identity is known, I urge the State Government to ban the person(s) from entering Sabah because we do not want people who disrespect the second largest ethnic group in Sabah to put a foot down on our soil,” he said.

Persatuan Keluarga Keranaan Liwan Sabah (Sakag) representative Dr Benedict Topin said the person responsible would face two types of justice, natural justice and the highest justice which is divine justice.

“If the person comes forward and admits the wrongdoing to the authorities, punishment according to natural human justice will be imposed. But if the person remains silent and does not apologise to the KadazanDusun people, the individual will face divine justice that can be carried on from generation to generation,” he said.

To the question about imposing a ‘sogit’ on the blogger, Topin said only after the person had been identified that it could be done.